Mumbai, Sep 10 (IANS): Indian equity markets were trading higher as heavyweights like Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank, Power Grid, Nestle, NTPC, Sun Pharma, HCL Tech and Infosys emerged as top gainers in Sensex.

At 9:45 a.m., Sensex was up 43 points or 0.05 per cent at 81,605 and Nifty was up 13 points or 0.05 per cent at 24,950.

In early trade, buying was seen in the midcap and smallcap stocks. Nifty midcap was up 613 points or 1.05 per cent at 58,960 and Nifty smallcap was up 167 points or 0.88 per cent at 19,259.

Bajaj Finserv, M&M, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank and TCS were top losers in the Sensex.

According to the market experts, "There are some significant recent trends in the market: One, there is weakness in the mid and small caps segments; two, the banking segment which has been a consistent underperformer is exhibiting resilience and is moving up; three, defensives like pharmaceuticals and FMCG are slowly gaining and there are signs of accumulation in these segments. The message from these trends is that there is an increasing preference for quality in the market now."

"The buy on dips strategy continues to work in this market and, therefore, investors may stay with the dominant trends in the market," they added.

Almost all National Stock Exchange (NSE) indices were trading in the green. IT, PSU Bank, pharma, realty, media, energy and infra were major gainers.

In Asian markets, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Jakarta and Seoul are in the green. Bangkok and Shanghai are in the red. US markets closed in the green on Monday.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net buyers on September 9, purchasing equities worth Rs 1,176 crore, while domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 1,757 crore on the same day.